| Opening Statement: “I’m going to start with this, we’re parting ways with (Offensive Coordinator Anthony Lynn) A-Lynn. Just talked to him a little bit ago and felt like this is just best for both of us. Look, he came here, took a leap of faith with us under the impression that he would be calling the plays. And so, it was not going to go that direction. Again, that’s not fair to him either. I wish him the best. He’s been a true pro, he works his tail off and he gave us everything he had. So, I appreciate him for that. He is, he’s a pro. Other than that, everything I said last night would pretty much stand as far as it pertains to this team. Certainly, that’s the way you want to finish and it was good to see a number of young guys, rookies, rookie free agents, second-year players that have really played a lot of valuable reps for us this season begin to develop and do things. You do see improvement. So, I thought the back half of the season we started to kind of find a little bit of a rhythm and that’s a good thing that is something to build off of.” On why he believes yesterday’s win can be a springboard into the offseason: “I just think, there again, the fact that these guys have continued to bang away and never lost hope and gave their best effort, best foot forward and they believed in every game that we could win. They really didn’t believe that we were going to go in and we didn’t have a chance to win a game and it didn’t matter who we were playing and I think that was important. And so, because of that, we were able to finish out on a win yesterday and I think that belief and the knowing of that and knowing that everything to this point, we bring in more competition and we’ll only be better because of it. It should give us a springboard, and now we’ll be a year into it, us as coaches, the players that are here. We’ll be better. We’ll be better for it.” On if he expects any more turnover among the coaching staff: “To be honest, I’m not there yet. Like, I want to sit down and really think about this over the next week or two and just digest it and see where we’re at. I want to take more of a deep dive into our roster, I mean the staff as a whole. I’m not ready to quite go there yet with what that answer would be, or answers if you will.” On why it did not work out with Offensive Coordinator Anthony Lynn: “I just think it didn’t – it just wasn’t a fit. You want it to be, but I think it just – we never found our groove or our rhythm if you will and it’s hard to really, truly pinpoint. It just – sometimes it just doesn’t work out the way you want. That’s really the best answer I can give you.” On if him taking over play-calling midseason could affect the offensive coordinator search in the offseason: “Look, it could be. Certainly, that would be out there. Look, it would – there again, I think everything’s got to start with I think somewhat me deciding what I want to do and, ‘Do I want to continue to call?’ Want to is not the right word. It’s what I think is best for us and as a team and I need time to think about that. Now, I will say this, I think (Tight Ends Coach) Ben Johnson did a hell of a job for us. I will say that and kind of leave it at that if you will.” On the pros and cons of being the offensive play-caller and managing the game at the same time: “I think the pros are that I’ll only continue to get better as an offensive play-caller and I’ll get better at both, being both as far as game management and a play-caller. I think those are the pros. I think the cons can be that you’re not as invested defensively and special teams with the totality of your players that you might – that you would be able to be if you weren’t so invested in the offense. So, I think that’s the pros and cons and I’ve got to decide that. I’ve got to weigh it and look, I’ve got time. I’m not in a hurry, that’s for sure. I’m not in some hurry to do something here. I feel pretty good one way or another about what we’re going to do because I do know we’re going in the right direction offensively. I do believe that.” On the team’s performance throughout the second half of the season coming out of the Bye week: “I felt like it was exactly what it was. I felt like once we came out of the Bye, we played a lot better football. I thought we complemented each other much better offensively, defensively. And to me, you could really feel and see progress and I felt like – I really felt like over the last probably five, six weeks that I really felt, ‘OK, now we can get a true evaluation of our players, all of them and where we’re at offensively, defensively, special teams.’ And, I didn’t always feel that way, particularly offensively until a certain point, and that was big. That’s big for us. And there again, I just go back, you see improvement and we played some good football down the stretch. Now, some of it wasn’t and I’m not going to get into why it was or why it wasn’t, but I know this, we were better. We were certainly better in the back half of the season than in the beginning.” On QB Jared Goff’s performance the second half of the season and playing in the final game: “I think, there again, he played some of his best football in the last four or five games of the season. And, I thought that was important and I said it last night, but just the fact that he hung in there and he was resilient, he was tough, I mean he’s coming off of this bone bruise, wanted to play, he was dying to play. Hell, he wanted to try to play the week before, but it just want quite ready. We’re not playing for the playoffs or anything. He wanted to compete. He wanted to be in there. He wanted to take ownership of this team one more time and I think that speaks volumes. I know this, he can throw the football. I like where he’s going, I really do. I like where he’s going. He’s certainly trending in the right way and shoot man, he’s one of the biggest reasons why we did get three wins.” On if QB Jared Goff could be the franchise quarterback moving forward: “Look, I can’t get into all of that, I really can’t. I just know this, I’m excited that we’ve got him and I can’t wait for this year to come up after this offseason. Give me a minute, but I like where we’re going. I like where we’re heading next year.” On CB Jeff Okudah’s preparations to come back for next season: “Listen, he wanted to be around as much as he could be. He reached out to me a couple of times just about wanting to be around the team and still feel like he was a part of it. And, he’s been up here rehabbing, he’s been working. And look, he’s hungry. I mean, he’s ready to go. He’s already – he’s ready to take the next step into his rehab and physically get ready to hit the offseason running. It’s good. Look, it’s one of those unfortunate things where injury has struck again, but all you can do is try to come back better than ever and have yourself 100 percent ready to go. And so look, he’s of the right mindset. That’s all you can ask for in a player.” LIONS QB JARED GOFF QUOTE SHEET January 10, 2022 On what the offense needs next year after the team parted ways with Offensive Coordinator Anthony Lynn: “First of all, I want to thank Coach Lynn for everything he did and his hard work. It doesn’t go unnoticed. I hope I get to talk to him sometime soon and let him know that the way he handled himself the whole season is remarkable and truly professional. We really do appreciate it because he could, if he wanted to, have a bad attitude and he didn’t, and it was really cool to see from him. But in the future, to answer your question, a lot of what we did toward the end of the year was something that we’d like to see. Hopefully, the pass game continues to improve and hopefully I can be a part of that and hopefully the run game can stay on track and do its thing, but hopefully a lot of what we’ve done in the last couple games.” On Lions Tight Ends Coach Ben Johnson’s role in the passing game this season: “Yeah, Ben really stepped in there about halfway through the year and became very involved in having a lot of ideas, and installing things, and having his hand in a lot of the stuff the quarterback was doing and really every position, wide receivers, and really tightening everybody. His ceiling is – the sky’s the limit for him. I’m excited to hopefully have him back, and we’ll see where that goes.” On what he learned about himself upon reflection over the Bye week: “I think it was always just about understanding what we’re trying to do and playing fast and playing decisive. I think once I was able to get there with some of the stuff we implemented with (Tight Ends Coach) Ben (Johnson) and (Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) and all of them, maybe the Chicago game was the game where that really clicked. I thought we kind of took off there offensively. Some of the improvements you guys wouldn’t be able to see, they happened in practice and weren’t ultimately seen in the game but a lot of it was. Just seeing how we practiced every day and how much better we got over those however many weeks it was, six or seven weeks, was really cool to see and gives us a real reason to have some optimism heading into the offseason.” On how he grew in terms of his leadership this season: “I was able to have a lot more control, I guess, or a lot more say or ownership is maybe the word, that feeling of it being mine. (Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) and the rest of the staff have been great with that and making me feel that way. It’s been really good. I feel like I’ve grown how I should grow. I’m finishing year six now, and hopefully I continue to grow in that area again.” On how much further ahead he will be at the start of next season compared to when he arrived in Detroit: “A lot further. I think a lot of the guys that I’m comfortable with, I know who we’ve got coming back. I’m obviously comfortable with the receivers, the O-line. Getting Frank (Ragnow) back will be huge. Just some of that stuff that will get us on the right foot and feel good moving forward.” On this season being a springboard for the team moving forward: “Yeah, like I said, the reason for optimism. We beat a really good team yesterday. Granted I know they took their guys out at halftime or some of them, but still they’ve got 13 wins with anyone playing and we beat them. We beat the Cardinals, we beat Minnesota, and those all happened in the last handful of weeks and those give us reason for optimism that those kind of know how to do it now, know how to win. We still have a lot of room to improve and a lot of things to happen, but this spring, summertime for us is going to be really fun and really important.” On how much input he hopes to have in the offseason preparations: “I don’t think it’ll ever be too extreme. But I do trust (Executive Vice President & General Manager) Brad (Holmes) and (Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) and have a really good level of communication with them where they can ask me anything, I can ask them anything and we can have those conversations. Ultimately, they’re going to make the decisions, but I do think they value my opinion in certain areas and if they do ask, I’ll be happy to give it to them.” |
